“Venom” got off to a rough start with critics, with reviews garnering only a 30 percent fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes at press time. Despite that, Sony is banking on “Venom” being the start of a new film series — going so far as to tease a Woody Harrelson-starring sequel in a surprise mid-credits scene.

If you’re not particularly well versed in Marvel Comics lore, though, you probably have no idea what was going on in that scene between Harrelson and Venom himself, Tom Hardy, or what the significance is of Harrelson’s character popping up there.

In the scene, we see Hardy’s Eddie Brock paying a visit to someone in the deepest reaches of San Quentin prison — this is the big interview he mentioned to Anne (Michelle Williams) at the end of the movie. This person is a very, very dangerous serial murderer. And it’s Woody Harrelson! A pretty big name to pop up for the first time in a mid-credits stinger.

So after a little bit of back and forth, Harrelson delivers this big declaration: “When I get out of here, and I will, there’s gonna be carnage.” That’s actually a pun, because Harrelson’s character is none other than Cletus Kasady, who in the comics bonds with a symbiote called Carnage.

Now, Carnage is not just another symbiote like Riot. Carnage is actually the “spawn” of Venom, so they’ll have a different sort of relationship than the symbiotes in this movie do.

It’s not likely that Kasady has the Carnage symbiote just yet, though, unless it was somehow created by accident during the movie without us noticing. More likely they’ll save that whole thing for the next movie, should it happen.

It’s notable that in the comics Carnage is much more powerful than Venom because, essentially, of how intense and murderous Kasady is. It’ll be particularly interesting to see how they handle that dynamic — typically it requires Venom and somebody else, like Spider-Man, to deal with Carnage.

But Spidey is locked into the MCU and Venom’s on the outside looking in for now, so it’s likely that Venom will have to figure out how to handle Carnage on his own in a hypothetical “Venom” sequel.

Either way, the prospect of Woody Harrelson as the bad guy in a “Venom” movie is pretty enticing. Let’s just hope he doesn’t suffer the same fate as Paul Giamatti’s Rhino from “Amazing Spider-Man 2” — lost to history because they never made that third movie.

All 7 Theatrical 'Spider-Man' Movies Ranked, Worst to Best

We've been through a whole lot of Spider-Man in the past couple decades, from the Tobey Maguire years to Tom Holland in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to, now, a big-screen animated pic focused on Miles Morales and a whole bunch of other Spider-People. So how does this new animated version of Spidey stack up with the previous flicks?

7. "The Amazing Spider-Man"

The first attempt to reboot the series after the Sam Raimi version of "Spider-Man" is easily the worst Spidey film because it's just so irritating to watch. It's one thing to be bad, and it's something else entirely to be annoying.

Sony

6. "The Amazing Spider-Man 2"

Unlike its predecessor, Marc Webb's second failed attempt to make a coherent "Spider-Man" movie at least had the decency to be amusing thanks to the decision to have an unhinged, glowing Jamie Foxx as the main villain.

Sony

5. "Spider-Man 3"

In contrast to the more cynical failures of the "Amazing Spider-Man" movies, Raimi's last go-around maintained a beating heart even while it was severely hampered by somebody's need to shove a million villains in at once. The dance number alone makes it more interesting than nearly any other bad superhero movie.

Sony

4. "Spider-Man"

A lot of the early movies in the modern age of superhero blockbusters were very novel and exciting at the time but ended up feeling pretty mundane next to more recent ones, and the original "Spider-Man" movie is definitely one of those. It's fine. Solid.

Sony

3. "Spider-Man: Homecoming"

The storytelling suffers a bit upon reflection, but it's delightful and works so well as a comedy that it's hard to complain too much.

Sony

2. "Spider-Man 2"

If you look back at every comic book movie ever made, you're not going to find a whole lot that feel totally complete on their own. But "Spider-Man 2" is definitely one of them. It's not just a great superhero movie -- it's a great movie, period.

Sony

1. "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse"

While "Spider-Man 2" might have made me cry, "Into the Spider-Verse" made me weep. It also proved once and for all that Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) is the superior Spider-Man to Peter Parker.

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How does the animated “Spider-Verse” stack up in comparison with all those live-action mega-budget movies?

We've been through a whole lot of Spider-Man in the past couple decades, from the Tobey Maguire years to Tom Holland in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to, now, a big-screen animated pic focused on Miles Morales and a whole bunch of other Spider-People. So how does this new animated version of Spidey stack up with the previous flicks?